1 John 1: More than a Message

Background: John writing in old age; perhaps the last surviving member of the Twelve.  John uses the Apostolic “we”... and he writes for a specific reason: John “applies truth to life.”  Although what he writes is rooted in the Gospel story, he's not telling the story here ( he's already done that!); although all he says is built on good theology, he's not writing theology here; he's applying it to life.

So he begins with truth!   That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. What a way to begin a letter!   God is the focus of all attention, eternally, from the beginning.  This message, the “Word of life” was in the beginning.  John traces the journey of this revelation through from the  remote, distant voice of the ancient prophets, through to what he and the other apostles had heard Jesus say and seen him do... and more intimately, they had known his touch.  “Handled” suggests in particular the resurrection encounters and John's certainty about the truth of the resurrection.  It actually happened, people! 

John goes on — 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.  Christianity is never a matter of a message.  Never just talk, an idea, a concept.  John awkwardly breaks the flow of what he's saying to stress that the life was not just “there”, to be analysed or understood, but “manifest” – to be seen. The “life” was a person, and his name is Jesus.  who was with the father but came and showed the Father. John saw and is a witness. Faith in Jesus is always encounter with a Person.

So John picks up where he left off...  — 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed. At last, he begins to talk about his own activities and purpose.  This, this amazing life who was seen – this is what we proclaim and teach... The centre of attention is Jesus. And John writes and speaks this message for two practical purposes: fellowship, and joy.  The joy flows from the fellowship and it's the fellowship that we need to look at...

This relatedness, this “Kiononia” is the practical reason why John is writing.  Now fellowship is an important NT word.  It means “having something in common”.  Before they met Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James and John had something in common: they made a living as fishermen. (Lk 5. 10 describes James and John as Simon's koinonoi.)  Believers have our faith in common, (Jude 3); we have Jesus in common (1 Cor 1. 9); we have spiritual blessings in common (Rom 15. 27) and the earliest church had all things in common (Acts 2. 44).   We have something in common with each other, that puts us in a relationship with each other.  We have Jesus in common.  There are other thigns we may or may not have in common?  Culture, musical preferences, language, education, gender, age, ability or disability.  It's easy to feel we're got so much in common with one another when we hang around with people our own age, our own gender, our own outlook... but if these are the things that unite us, there will be others we aren't united with.  Even within a small church like ours, we will differ in some ways with regard to music, clothes, language...  But it is Jesus that we have in common. 

Which is bigger: the school you went to, or Jesus? Your politics, or Jesus?  The kind of music you like, or Jesus.?  (was John Lennon really more famous than Jesus?)  God calls us to fellowship, a special relationship with each other, that flows from the fact that we have Jesus in common.

But John says something else – something even more amazing:  our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ...  He defines not only our walks with each other as a special relationship, but also our walk with God is a special relationship.  We have fellowship with Jesus and with his Father.  God calls you to a relationship with your Heavenly Father., through Jesus.  He calls you to a relationship with Jesus, by the Spirit.   It's not enough to say we pray, we trust, we obey.  John says our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son.   How's your relationship with Jesus. today?  How's your relationship with Father today? 

Devilla Forest, Fife. Photo  G Lilly

But wait a minute: “Fellowship” is having something in common.  What can we possibly have in common with God?    I believe the answer is “Light.”  John says, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth".  God is light, and wants us to walk in the light too.   We share light.  We share a wonderful, worshipful celebration of God's very character. 

What does it mean to say that “God is light”?  In the OT, “Light” tells us three things about God: firstly, that he is pure and holy (Ps 90. 8; Isa 51. 4; Hosea 6. 5; Hab 3. 11); secondly he is splendid and majestic; (Ps 104. 2) and thirdly that he show himself in a way that saves us: see Ps 27.1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” and Ps 36. 9 “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”  This is our God.  There are things we don't understand about him and the way he does things. That's our fault, not his.  There is nothing dark in him: no dullness or ordinariness; no sin or wrongdoing;   nothing of deception or self obscuring. Only splendour, holiness, justice, goodness and  grace.

God, this God is Light – splendid and majestic; he is holy, the judge of all the earth; he is love and sends his light to show us the way home.  This God invites us to have fellowship with himself.  He calls us to walk with him, to walk in his light.  He shares his light with us so we can walk in it.  You can know like a scientist that there is such a thing as light.  You can analyse it and admire the fact that it is travelling at 186,282 miles per second.  Or you can go out and watch the sunrise, see the colour, feel the warmth.

Photo by USAF in Public domain

But there is darkness in us:  the opposite of light: there is smallness and dullness and sin and self-obsession and self deception and play-acting.  We are weak, sinful, and we like to hide what we really are.  As a result, we find ourselves having to choose, whether to live in the light, responsive to what God's light exposes in us and reveals of God  or to dodge back into the darkness, trying to deny the reality of our darkness.   – we “say we have no sin” in one or more of at least three ways:-
We can do that by telling ourselves sin isn't really sin... everybody takes paper-clips from the office, nails from the workshop; everybody has sex if they want it.  Everyone loses their temper.
We can do it by telling ourselves it is someone else's fault.  It's the way I was brought up; I was provoked. God made me like it.
Or we can do it by denying we do anything wrong. “I never think an impure thought. I love absolutely everyone and am always seeing lost kittens across the road.” 

Photo by G Lilly

We can either walk – live our lives day by day, in the full exposing, challenging, saving radiance of God's light... or we can cover up, put on the sunglasses, the straw hat, the long-sleeved coat, stay indoors, shut the curtains, hide under the bed, go down the cellar.   If we try to hid, we lose fellowship with God and each other.  If are prepared to admit to the darkness inside, then the light not only exposes our sin, but bleaches them clean. "the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." (verse 7) If we confess our sins, God forgives, and cleanses (verse 9).

God calls us to the special relationship – fellowship with him, and fellowship with each other. 

In the end, these great truths aren't to be analysed. That which  was from the beginning, which we have heard, seen, touched, the word of life, isn't to be analysed.  It  - he - is to be encountered.  Thsi truth beckons us into relationship with Father and with each other.  As we seek to show the Father's love to the people around us, we need to walk in fellowship with Him and each other.



© Gilmour Lilly February 2012